El cuaderno de Tomy

From the trailer, you can tell this is a heart wrenching story and it is. It's the story of a woman in the last stages of her cancer. She has made the decision to be euthanized rather than to have a natural death, as the pain from her illness has become too much to bear and her body has severely deteriorated. From an American perspective, this film gives those against assisted death a real life account about the other side of the coin. The woman encounters obstacles in having this death of her choice in her country as well with her primary doctor refusing to euthanize her because she thinks death should be a natural thing. Still, we see the physical suffering the woman is in and the emotional toll it's taking on those around her. You think for yourself which side you're on with the assisted death debate.

Almost the entire film takes place at the hospital. Maru spends time with her family and friends, but the person whom she really wants to enjoy her last moments with is her son Tomy. We see her writing in the notebook that she will leave behind for her son which is full of stories from her life, notes about the love she'll always have for him, and advice on living life to the fullest. From what the movie shows, all the advice Maru leaves for Tomy came from her own experience as she was someone who took life by the bullhorns and made the most out of it. Each piece of advice that she gives him is demonstrated in the movie so the audience knows that what she was passing on to him truly came from her.

One thing I think could've been better is to have more focus on her relationship with her son. The scenes with her son aren't too many and this is the center of her story. The film focuses more on her wanting to be euthanized and the fame she developed from the tweets she posted that chaptered her experience with cancer. At times you'll hear her narrating with lines from the notebook she'll leave behind for Tomy, which I suppose loops us back to her relationship with her son. But I still think there should have been more scenes of her spending time with her son.

Still, I appreciated the film as a whole. As I mentioned earlier, it does well to show people the necessity of assisted death and how many people's morality is skewed when it comes to this subject. Maru was someone who enjoyed her life and I don't think she planned to end it anytime soon had she not been plagued with cancer. It shows that she did think about her loved ones and considered their feelings when making her decision. Her endless love for her son was apparent and I think what she did for him in the end was so special and perfectly shows the otherworldly strength of a mother's love.

It really is a tearjerker so have some tissue boxes ready before watching. It's definitely worth a watch since we can all use some advice from Maru, someone who made the most of her days up until the very end.